CI Invests $1.5M In Bioscience Firms

Connecticut Innovations announced on Thursday that it had made a $1.5 million seed-stage investment in three bioscience ventures. Two of the three have received earlier rounds of funding from the quasi-public investment authority.

AxioMx Inc, a Branford firm working with fragments of synthetically generated antibodies for research, diagnostic tests and therapeutics, received $750,000 from CI, as part of a $2.5 million round of financing.

CMDBioscience Inc, an Orange company that specialized in analysis, modeling and design of protein-peptide interactions, received $500,000 from CI, as part of a $1 million round of financing. The firm, which previously received seed funding from CI, has offices at CI's technology incubator at Yale.

Synbody Biotechnology Inc., a Farmington company that works with synthetic antibodies to advance drug discovery, received $250,000 from CI, who invested $750,000 in the company in March.

The company, which relocated from Pennsylvania following CI's initial investment, is participating in the University of Connecticut's Technology Incubator Program and has labs in the UConn Health Center.

"We continue to build on Connecticut's strength in bioscience, an industry that the Malloy administration has targeted for growth," said Claire Leonardi, CI's chief executive officer and executive director, in a statement. "As they refine their technologies and build partnerships with universities and businesses in the state's bioscience sector, these companies will continue to expand their operations and create jobs here in Connecticut."